I’m Robby, and I’m a non-native English speaker. Throughout my entire life I’ve always wanted to speak in English fluently, but because of the way English is taught in schools, I always struggled with my spoken English.

Then, one fine day, after years of constant pursuit of English fluency, I realized the key aspect of spoken English improvement – learning English phrases and word combinations instead of studying grammar rules and trying to construct sentences in your head from scratch!

If you’re interested in improving your English fluency too, please check out the English Harmony System which is a product I created to help all my fellow foreigners to better their spoken English and achieve so much more in professional, social and personal life.

My Experience in a Polish Beauty Salon & What Foreign English Speakers Can Learn From It!

OK, it’s about time I came clean about my activities involving skin rejuvenation procedures and wrinkle treatment. Yes, I’m getting older, there’s a lot of grey hair emerging on my head, so I want to do everything within my power to fight the effects of time and look young forever…

Just kidding! 😀

It’s not really me who used services of the beauty salon – it was my daughter and I just brought her there. I used it as an attention grabber and I just wanted to entice you to start reading this article, which is probably just as bad as lying, sorry for that! 😉

Keep reading this article though, because I’m about to tell you why my visit to the Polish beauty salon was more than just sitting in the hall and waiting on my daughter to finish her facial procedure.

I got talking to the salon owner – a Polish woman – and what struck me was the fact that her English pronunciation was nearly perfect.

Seriously, I couldn’t remember meeting any other foreigner here in Ireland having such a near-native level of English accent. Or should I say – lack of thereof – because at times she sounded exactly like the local English speakers! (for your reference – English spoken in Ireland is a bit different in terms of pronunciation and grammar than its American, British and Australian counterparts.)

I was simply amazed at how confident she was and how fluently she spoke despite allowing a slight imperfection to creep into her speechevery now and then. And you know what? It didn’t hinder the communication between me, my wife and the salon owner a bit; we could speak with her with the same ease as we’d speak with native English speakers.

You Don’t Need to Be Perfect to Be
an Effective English Communicator!

What so many foreigners and native English speakers alike seem to be getting wrong is the blanket approach (everything or everyone being regarded the same) towards imposing the English language standards. Whether you’re a medical staff member in a hospital or a warehouse operator, your spoken English knowledge is judged by how skillfully you’re able to get the Tenses right and how good your English pronunciation is.

But here’s the problem the way I see it – the assistant doctor and the warehouse operative clearly don’t have identical professional requirements in terms of grammar and pronunciation. If the warehouse operative speaks with a lot of mistakes yet his speech is fluent and totally understandable, why would he be treated equally with a doctor of foreign origin who confuses his native English speaking patients when discussing a complicated medical issue and possible treatment scenarios?

I think everyone deserves to be treated based on their unique situation, and I believe the warehouse operative’s career shouldn’t be limited by a glass ceiling (gender, age and racial bias in terms of employment) just because the manager would rather have a native English speaker in a team-leader’s position, for instance. If a person can express their opinion and feel comfortable in all daily situations, he or she is to be considered a fluent English speaker and an effective communicator.

My point was that if his English isn’t fit for the purpose, there’s nothing wrong with assessing his language skills and determining certain areas where there’s further improvement needed. Meeting professional standards is a completely different story altogether and is not to be mistaken for discrimination on nationality grounds.

The point I’m trying to make here is – if your English skills are sufficient for your work and social needs, you shouldn’t be judged on the basis that your English doesn’t meet higher standards applicable to professionals and native English speakers ❗

Confident Demeanor Goes a Long Way!

I suppose it’s relatively easy to maintain the air of confidence about you if you’ve never experienced any English fluency related issues. If you’ve never been academically minded and you haven’t tried to transfer the kind of security that comes from writing a perfect piece of writing into your English conversations, you probably have never given a conscious thought to what might be wrong with your spoken English.

When you just speak WITHOUT much thinking about HOW you speak, you can exert that type of confidence seen in people who are truly comfortable about what they’re doing regardless of their level of professionalism.

And that’s exactly what I could see in that Polish beauty salon owner.

She was 100% comfortable discussing subjects related to her profession. We asked her specific questions about facial skincare and treatment and she used industry related terms with an ease of a native English speaker.

When we got talking about unrelated topics she was still 100% comfortable with her English. Yes, she hesitated a bit on some occasions when looking for the right word to say. Yes, she made a few mistakes along the way.

IT DIDN’T WORRY HER A BIT though, and that’s the most important trait of character that a foreign English speaker may wish for ❗

Yes, the Polish girl’s pronunciation was flawless – and I can see why it may make a person sound more fluent (although I’m not too concerned about it personally) – but that’s not the main reason she came across as a very fluent English speaker.

If you asked for my opinion, I’d definitely say that it’s the confidence and carelessness she spoke with that made our English communication with her pleasant and easy!

Robby

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’mÂ highlightingÂ some of the text in red?Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

This advice may come in handy to those who are overly worried about their English fluency: If you can’t climb a mountain, relax and try a hill. You can still enjoy the great outdoors!

Artmots

Hello, Robby
One simple issue to focuse on. When exactly did your English Harmony System work on you personally throughout the years of yourÂ struggling on your own fluency? When you came into the invironment? What about us? Chances are we stay at home…. Your system is about improvement, is it? But we want to talk and write like you do. Are we supposed to face this never ending game of playing minors because we are at home?
Arti

You see, I’ve been struggling with my own fluency for years, so I guess I know pretty much everything that there is to know when it comes to discussing English fluency improvement and related issues…

Robby

Artmots

Hello again, Robby.
This is Arti writing to you. Thanks for the article. I wonder how you’ve managed to get such a deep inside look into the matter!!! For me the ideally fluent English speach is something I call an ability to organize an expanded speaking on a topic in question. This is like you talk being interviewed on the subject you are aware of. In other words you know what to answer and talk about.